


Invitation

by someoneplsloverobbierotten



Category: LazyTown
Genre: I'm so sorry, Misunderstandings, Multi, Pre-Relationship, it was meant to be more shippy but, whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 20:45:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12307425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/someoneplsloverobbierotten/pseuds/someoneplsloverobbierotten
Summary: Sportacus wants to invite Robbie to the football match he and the kids are having, and the kids are very much in favour of this. They encourage Sportacus to go ask him, but when he comes back with Robbie's answer, none of them are happy with it.-----------My LazyTown secret friend gift for tumblr user @maggiedarkbado!





	Invitation

**Author's Note:**

> so um, this kind of got away from me a little bit? in that it was meant to be about 1k… 1.5k tops… and it was meant to be super fluffy and shippy and kind of turned into angst…… whoops.
> 
> anyway, this is my lazytown secret friend fic for @maggiedarkbado on tumblr! hope you like it :)

It was a sunny day in LazyTown, and the children had decided to play a game of football.

Sportacus had gotten the message from Pixel that morning, relayed through his ship's AI, and had gone down to the courtyard as soon as he'd finished his morning exercises. The kids were already waiting for him when he arrived, arguing about whether or not Pixel using his visor to detect where the ball would land in the goal was cheating or not.

"That's not fair!" Trixie was arguing, "You can't know where the ball is going to go, that’s cheating!"

"Just because I'll know where it's going doesn’t mean I'll still be able to _catch_ it," Pixel defended, clutching the ball to his chest, "it's not like the visor's catching the ball _for_ me."

"That's still cheating!" Trixie caught sight of him and threw her hands out. "Sportacus!" she called, _"you_ tell him that that's cheating."

Sportacus let out an amused sigh and wend over to explain that whilst he understood Pixel's point, having the use of his visor like that was an advantage for him that would make the game unfair for the others.

Stephanie was over by the wall, setting up the snacks on a little table. She had brought a box of juice pouches and some sportscandy and Ziggy had brought enough candy and chocolate to feed all of the kids three times over. He was helping Stephanie lay everything out while Stingy sat on the wall with his piggy, sipping from one of the pouches and observing Pixel and Trixie's arguing. When Sportacus arrived and started trying to defuse everything, Stingy set his piggy to the side and hopped down, Stephanie and Ziggy abandoning the snack table to follow him over to Sportacus and the other two.

"Sportacus!" Ziggy flew towards the town hero, "did you come to play football with us?" he was practically bouncing at Sportacus's feet, desperate to know if he would be joining them.

"Hello Ziggy!" Sportacus beamed, "hello Stephanie, hello Stingy!"

"Hi Sportacus," Stephanie smiled, waving enthusiastically as she went to stand next to Trixie. The troublemaker still looked a bit put out over her earlier argument with Pixel so she made sure to put her arm around her shoulder, and Trixie's pout immediately vanished.

"Hello Sportacus," Stingy greeted, with a pleased nod. He was very happy that Sportacus had come to join his match.

Sportacus grinned at them all and reached down to ruffle Ziggy's hair. The small boy looked like he was about to explode, practically vibrating under Sportacus's hand. "I got Pixel's message this morning," he confirmed, "I'd love to play in your football match."

_"My_ football match," Stingy interjected.

_"Our_ football match," Pixel corrected. "Though it's technically Trixie's, if it's anyone's, since it was her idea."

"Yeah," Trixie nodded, and gave him a thankful look. Stephanie smiled at her, glad that she had accepted the extended olive branch, so to speak.

Stingy rolled his eyes. _"Fine."_

Ziggy whooped, incredibly excited that Sportacus was going to be playing a proper match with them, and rushed back over to the snack table to pick up the box of bandanas that he had brought. "I got these so we know who’s on who's team," he explained, setting the box by Sportacus's feet. "I wanted to bring shirts, like we have at school, but I didn’t have enough." He took out a handful of red bandanas and another handful of blue ones, holding them up for Sportacus to inspect proudly.

"Wow Ziggy," Sportacus said, taking one of the blue ones and turning it over in his hands, "that was very smart of you!"

"Thanks Sportacus! I thought we could tie them around our arms or heads like hats."

"Good thinking!" the hero praised.

"You should keep that one Sportacus," Ziggy nodded at the bandana on his hand, "you'll be on the blue team anyway, won't you?"

Stephanie and Trixie shared a snicker as Sportacus turned a little pink in the cheeks.

"Uhm," Sportacus coughed a little, "I- yes, I expect I will." He tied the bandana firmly around his upper arm, ignoring the girls giggling to the side of him.

"Great!" Ziggy shouted, "now we can decide who else is on the blue team!"

The kids moved into a close circle to decide who was going to be on which team while Sportacus fiddled with his bandana. Ziggy wanted to be on both teams, so it was pretty difficult for him to decide. On one hand, he wanted to be on the same side as Sportacus, but on the other hand he wanted to play against Sportacus 'cause then he could show him how good he was and how much he'd learned, and he could really, _especially_ show that to Sportacus if he beat him. Being Sportacus's competition would be really cool, and after a few minutes the others had helped him come to the decision to be on the red team, with Trixie and Stephanie.

Trixie wanted to beat Sportacus. That was why she'd declared herself part of the red team before anyone else had even had the chance to _think_ about what team they wanted to be on, never mind announce it. She didn’t really care about showing Sportacus how good she was - well, she did, but only in the way that Sportacus would think _'wow, look at those super cool moves'_ while she absolutely _creamed_ him - but Stephanie was in the same boat as Ziggy. She'd quite like to win anyway because winning is great, but she'd also really improved in the past couple of months and she wanted to show Sportacus what she'd learnt. She too, thought that being the hero's competition instead of his ally was the best way to do that.

Luckily, both Stingy and Pixel wanted to be on the blue team with Sportacus, so they didn’t have to fight over everybody wanting to be on the same team. Well, almost; Pixel had no doubts about being on Sportacus's team - especially since blue also happened to suit him quite well too - but Stingy had the predictable dilemma of wanting to be on both teams, because, after all, they were both his.

It took everyone a couple of minutes for Pixel to convince him that, actually, only the team he was _in_ was technically his, as that was the nature of competition, and that he therefore really had to pick a team. Just one. Stephanie suggested that he should go for the team he thought was the best, though that ended up backfiring - "well, _clearly_ the best team is whichever one has _me_ on it," - until Pixel convinced him that between his and Sportacus's _awesome_ football skills, there was no way the blue team could lose with Stingy on their side too.

"Fine," Stingy agreed, "I'm on the blue team then - but _only_ because Pixel is on there."

Pixel turned a little red under his visor.

Ziggy handed everyone an appropriate coloured bandana and they all helped each other tie them to their arms. While Trixie was helping Ziggy tie his, Stephanie turned to tell Sportacus that they'd picked their teams. The hero wasn't paying attention to any of them though, staring over towards the wall. Stephanie looked over too to see what he was looking at, but couldn’t find anything besides Stingy's piggy. She looked back to Sportacus to ask what he'd seen, but he'd turned away a little; now he was squinting in the direction of the tree. What on earth was he doing? Was he looking for something? Or…

"Sportacus, are you looking for someone?"

The hero almost jump out of his _skin_ \- he'd clearly been in his own little world when Stephanie spoke and the sound of her voice had startled him. He turned to her, clearly embarrassed that he'd been caught not paying attention if the blush on his cheeks was anything to go by. "I'm sorry Stephanie," he apologised, "I was… distracted, I suppose - what did you say?"

"I asked if you were looking for someone," Stephanie repeated, crossing her arms. She gave him a suspicious look that looked downright close to a smirk. She had a very good idea of who the hero was looking for.

Sportacus quickly shook his head. Too quickly.

"Oh," Stephanie said, "because I thought you might've been looking for _Robbie."_

Sportacus let out a nervous laugh. "No, no, I- I was seeing if he was _around_ , yes, but only to see if we would have our game interrupted by mischief," he explained.

Stephanie didn’t believe a word of it. "Well that’s a shame," she said, "because if he was around we could've invited him to play with us."

Sportacus blinked. "We- could have?"

"Sure," Stephanie shrugged, "why not? He causes mischief but he's a bit of a softie really."

"I don’t think Robbie would really be interested in football, Stephanie," he told her, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, "but it's nice of you to offer."

"Well he doesn’t have to _play_ ," Stephanie giggled, "it'd make the numbers uneven anyway - though you can ask if you want - he can just watch, but I think he'd like to spend time with us. Half the time his schemes end up being really fun and he just basically plays with us for a while, and he's always singing and dancing. A couple of weeks ago he even joined in with big bang, remember?"

Sportacus did remember. He'd caught Robbie in a dip as the song had ended, and Robbie had looked up at him, cheeks flushed and smiling. It was possibly the happiest Sportacus had ever seen the villain, and he'd thought about that moment a lot over the past few weeks.

"Hey Trixie!" Stephanie called, startling Sportacus out of the memory.

Trixie came over to them, her red bandana tied securely around her arm. "Yeah, Pinkie?"

"Do you think if Robbie turns up we should invite him to play football with us?"

"Heck yeah," Trixie nodded. "He hardly ever gets to have fun around here - and I bet he knows some good ways to che- to _uh,_ improve our playing."

Both Sportacus and Stephanie raised an eyebrow at her quick save there, but neither mentioned it.

"Hey - what's going on over here?" Stingy demanded, marching over, "we've been ready for ages now - if you guys are having some sort of pow-wow and you didn’t invite _me-"_

"Calm _down_ Stinge," Trixie told him as Pixel and Ziggy joined them, "we weren't having some secret meeting or anything."

"Yeah," Stephanie agreed, "we were just talking about what to do if Robbie shows up."

Ziggy gasped. "Is _Robbie_ coming too!?"

"Do- do you _want_ Robbie to come?" Sportacus asked, taken aback. He knew that the kids didn't _hate_ the villain, they were far too nice for that, but he really hadn't expected _this_ level of acceptance from them, not with the amount of trouble Robbie usually caused - they were almost _excited_ about the prospect of him joining them.

"Of course!" Ziggy yelled, "he never comes around to play with us - not just as _himself_ \- and I think I brought far too much candy for the snacks; Robbie _loves_ candy, just like me! I bet he could help me eat it."

"Agreed," said Pixel, "it'll be nice to have him around. We don't see him much unless he's scheming or in disguise - and I don’t think he gets to spend time with other people, not really. It'll be fun for him."

Stingy nodded. "He spends all day holed up in the lair. He should definitely come down and watch _my_ achievement."

_"Our_ achievement, Stinge." Pixel reminded him, nudging the boys bandana'd arm.

"Fine, yes, _our_ achievement," Stingy relented, nudging him right back. "But he should watch _mine_ in particular."

"Well…" Sportacus hedged, "you know guys, he might not even come up today-"

Trixie scoffed. _"Please,_ Sportacus. We're about to have a huge football match; we'll be running and playing sports and yelling. He'll come up."

"You should just go ask him now," Stephanie suggested, "that way we won't have to stop halfway through, and Robbie can be here from the beginning and not miss anything."

"Yeah!" Ziggy agreed.

"What if he has plans?" Sportacus countered gently, "he could be busy inventing, or sleeping, I don’t want to get your hopes-"

Trixie let out an exasperated sigh, "just go _ask_ him, Sportacus! If he can't come then he can't come, but you gotta _try_ at least!"

All the kids nodded, and Sportacus got the distinct feeling that he was outnumbered on this. "Alright, alright," the hero held his hands up and laughed. He knew when he was beaten.

"We'll wait here for you," Pixel said."

"We can have some pre-game snacks!"

Ziggy's suggestion was met with resounding agreement and Sportacus left them to it, vaulting over the short wall of the court and starting a light jog towards Robbie's lair.

It didn't take long to get there - Robbie's lair might be technically beyond the edges of LazyTown itself but it wasn't actually that far away; no more than ten minutes going at his absolute slowest jog. He didn't really want to keep the kids waiting though, so he sped up enough to get there in a little over five.

Sportacus couldn't hear any sounds coming from the lair when he arrived, no banging or screeching signalling the inventor was at work, and he shifted his feet against the metal flooring behind the billboard. If Robbie was asleep then he surely wouldn’t be happy to be woken up, and Sportacus certainly didn’t want to wake him up. That would be rude, and he also knew that Robbie never got enough sleep - he wouldn’t want to ruin Robbie's chance.

But the kids would be upset if he didn’t at least _try_ to ask Robbie to come play with them, and they'd _know_ if he hadn’t. Sportacus couldn’t lie at _all_ when it came to stuff like this, he was terrible at it. Plus, just because he didn’t really hear anything going on underground didn’t mean that the villain wasn’t _awake,_ he just might not be inventing right now.

With that in mind, the hero rapped his knuckles on the lair's chute lid and called Robbie's name.

For a couple of seconds there was no response, but then a groan sounded somewhere from below. Sportacus heard a clatter, followed by the sounds of someone climbing up the chute and he let out a sigh of relief. He _probably_ hadn't woken Robbie up.

The chute hatch creaked open and Robbie's grumpy face appeared, scowling at him through the gap. When he saw who had knocked he opened the hatch fully and straightened up, though the scowl remained on his face. Sportacus thought it was more a scowl of suspicion than anything else though.

"What do you want, Sportaspork?" Robbie asked slowly, looking the hero up and down with narrowed eyes.

"Hi Robbie! The kids and I were wondering if you'd want to join us for a football match," Sportacus told him, "they-"

He was cut off by a long, loud laugh.

"You think you can pull one over on _me,_ Sporta _fool?"_ Robbie asked, incredulous, "I know what you're _up to!"_

Sportacus was confused. "Up-? I'm not up to _anything_ Robbie!"

Robbie scoffed, crossing his arms and regarding Sportacus with an angry look. "Don't try to mess with me Sportaloon, you think I don’t see? Asking me to play _sports_ with you - a stupid plan!"

The hero couldn't believe it. He knew the other man wasn’t the biggest fan of sports - far from it, in fact - but he hadn't thought that he would react like this!

_"Robbie,"_ Sportacus started, almost desperately, "I wasn't _trying_ to-"

_"Don't,"_ Robbie said coldly. "I don't want to hear it - now go away." The villain ducked back down into the chute and slammed the hatch down behind him before Sportacus had the chance to say anything else - not that the hero would've been able to say anything anyway; Robbie's anger had rendered him speechless, and he stood in front of the lair's entrance-pipe frozen in shock.

He had _no_ idea what he'd done wrong.

Sportacus made his way back to the kids, scrubbing at his eyes.

 

* * *

 

 

The kids swarmed around him when he got back to the court, asking questions and trying to see how it had gone.

"What did he say?" asked Pixel, "did he say yes?"

"Is he coming?" Ziggy begged, so excited he was jumping on the spot.

Stephanie knew though, Sportacus could tell. She stood behind the others, silent, and looking at him sadly. He felt horrible.

"I'm afraid he'd not coming, kids," he said gently. Ziggy stopped jumping. "He's very busy today," he told them, "he has lots of inventing to do and he can't come."

He didn’t want to lie to them, he really didn't. He hated lying, and if Robbie hadn't refused the way he had, he probably wouldn't. But they had all been _so_ excited about the prospect of Robbie coming to see them, and he couldn't tell them how Robbie had acted when he'd asked, he just couldn't.

"Oh," Ziggy whispered. "He- he's not coming?"

Sportacus shook his head.

Ziggy nodded to himself, processing the news. "Okay," he said after a moment, "okay."

"I get it," Pixel said, "I build stuff a lot and I don’t always have time to play - especially if something's almost done or I have a lot to do. I just want to get it finished." he put a comforting hand on Ziggy's shoulder and the child nodded again.

"Exactly," the little boy said, "he's just got a lot to do."

The kids murmured their agreement - it was upsetting, yes but it was a valid excuse that was easily understood. Some adults didn’t have time to play.

Hoping to move them away from the topic and dispel the bad mood, Sportacus rolled the football over to himself with his foot and kicked it up into his hand. "Well then, who wants to play some football?" he asked, putting on as big a smile as he could.

"No."

The harsh tone was unexpected and Sportacus and the kids quickly turned to Trixie. She was stood next to Stephanie at the back of the group, arms crossed and glaring.

"What's wrong Trix?" Stephanie asked, confused.

"Sportacus is _lying,"_ she announced, and the other kids all made noises of protest.

_"Trixie!"_ Stephanie gasped.

"Don't 'Trixie' me, Pinky, something's not right and you _know_ it," Trixie said, giving her friend a look.

Stephanie ducked her head, embarrassed. "Fine, I think something's wrong too, but I still don’t think you should accuse Sportacus of lying."

Trixie shrugged. "Well maybe he's not," she looked at Sportacus, "but I don’t think you're telling us the entire truth at least. You’re leaving something out, and _I_ want to know _what."_

"Excuse me," Stingy interrupted, "but if _anybody_ should be knowing things it's me. That information is _mine."_

"Stingy," Pixel said, pulling him back a little by the hand, "not now - if Sportacus is hiding something then we all deserve to know."

"Are you Sportacus?" Ziggy asked, "are you not telling us something?"

Sportacus shuffled his feet a little. He wasn't going to lie again, especially not when they knew something was up, but… he just didn’t know what to _say._

"I- kids, Robbie said no."

Trixie nodded. "I don’t think you're lying about that," she said, "but theres something else isnt there?"

Sportacus nodded. "Robbie didn’t say no because he was busy. I- was not truthful, when I said that."

Ziggy frowned, looking up at Sportacus in confusion. "Why did he say no then?"

Sportacus hesitated, working out the best way to word things. "He- he was very upset, when I asked," he settled on.

"Upset?" Asked Stephanie, "what was wrong?"

Sportacus shook his head, frustrated at not being able to explain it well enough. "No- I mean, the _question_ what was wrong - asking him to go… it upset him. It made him angry."

"Upset-? We just asked him if he wanted to come to our football game!" Trixie shouted in disbelief.

"I know," Sportacus said, "I- I think he thought I was trying to play a trick on him."

"A _trick!?"_ Trixie shrieked, "it's _you!_ You don’t _trick!"_ She threw her hands in the air, nearly hitting Stephanie in the face, "you would _never_ do something like that!"

"I know," Sportacus said again, "but Robbie seemed to think-"

"No," Trixie shook her head stubbornly and stamped her foot, "there _must_ be another reason - and I'm going to find out _what."_

"Trixie," Sportacus said, "Robbie has said he doesn’t want to come and we should respect that."

"Yeah, but he was mean to you when he said it! It's clear he's upset you!"

"She's right Sportacus," Stephanie sighed, "Even if he didn't want to come, he shouldn't've been like that."

"Thanks Pinkie," Trixie beamed.

_"But,"_ Stephanie continued, "that still doesn’t mean you should go after him, Trixie."

Trixie scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Well that’s exactly what I'm gonna do," she said, already marching off in the direction of Robbie's lair, "and you can’t stop me!"

Sportacus rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration as he watched her storm off, the remaining kids chattering around him. When he  made to go after her though, Stephanie shook her head and put out an arm, stopping him.

"I'll go," she said. "She'll just get even madder if an adult tries to stop her - even if it's you. I'll try and make sure she doesn’t do something stupid."

Sportacus didn’t like it, but Stephanie was right; him stopping Trixie would only make her madder now, and to be honest, he suspected that the girl would find a way to do something later even if he _did_ manage to stop her now. "Alright," he sighed.

Stephanie patted his arm and ran after Trixie.

 

* * *

 

 

"You're not changing my mind Pinkie," Trixie called out.

"I know," Stephanie told her, sliding her hand into Trixie's once she caught up. "I'm here for backup."

Trixie looked at her knowingly. Her cheeks were a little red. "And to make sure I don’t do something dumb?"

_"And_ to make sure you don’t do something dumb," Stephanie confirmed, nodding. "How'd you know it was me, anyway?"

Trixie shrugged, "just did." She'd heard running behind her, but the footsteps had been way too light to be Sportacus - the only other person who could run that fast was Stephanie. Plus, Stephanie always had her back.

"What are you going to say to him," Stephanie asked, a little warily.

"Dunno," Trixie said, climbing the ledge to the lair's entrance chute, "but I'm gonna say it _loud."_ As she slapped her palm down onto the hatch, Stephanie rolled her eyes.

There was yelling from below, and a clattering as Robbie climbed up the pipe. He heaved the hatch open and glared down at them.

_"What?"_ he spat.

"Why did you yell at Sportacus?" Trixie demanded, showing no fear in the face of Robbie's bad temper. She set her hands on her hips and glared at him. "If you didn’t want to come to our football match you should've just _said_ so, you didn’t have to be _mean_ about it you- you _meanie."_

Robbie scoffed, crossing his arms haughtily. "Well he shouldn't've tried to ask me.

"He didn’t," Stephanie told him, _"we_ did, Robbie."

Robbie's angry, haughty look faltered for just a moment, surprise plain on his face. He was quick to shake it off. "Well- well I don’t _care_ who asked. It doesn’t matter who asked. I care about _why."_

_"Why?_ Because we want you to _come!"_ Trixie spluttered.

Robbie snorted. "Oh I _bet_ you do. Look, brats, whatever little game you're trying to play, I'm not a fool. I won't fall for it."

"G- game?" Trixie shouted, "we just want to play football."

"Sure."

"What do you mean _'sure'?"_ Trixie asked, incredulous, "Robbie, we just want you to come to our football match, what- what on _earth_ is wrong with that?"

Robbie didn’t answer.

"Robbie," Stephanie tried, gentler, "what's wrong? Why are you so _angry_ about this?"

Robbie didn’t say anything, just glared at them, and Trixie had had enough.

"Ugh!" Trixie shrieked, "that's it!"  They'd been here for ages and Robbie still refused to be anything but utterly confusing and stubborn, and her patience had finally run out. She grabbed Stephanie's hand, turned around and started marching back down the path they came. "I'm _done,"_ she yelled back at Robbie, "you wanna stay there and sulk in your cave? You can! _We're_ going to play football."

Stephanie stumbled a bit from the sudden chance but caught up to Trixie's angry marching quickly.

_"Trixie-"_ she began, but the other girl cut her off.

"I don't care Pinkie," Trixie huffed. "He was mean to Sportacus anyway."

"I know," Stephanie sighed. "You were right though, something else _is_ up."

"Told you."

"I- I think he really does think we'll play a trick on him," the pink haired girl said, "but I think it's more than that."

"Yeah," Trixie agreed, "like - I don’t think he thinks we'll just give him a funny shirt to wear instead of a bandana, or make him sit on a whoopie cushion or something," the pigtailed girl explained, "I think there's something else, Pinkie."

"He's upset about something - like Sportacus said."

Trixie hummed and nodded. "I've got no idea _what_ though."

 

* * *

 

 

When the girls returned from their trip, Sportacus could tell it hadn't gone well. Trixie looked sullen, practically skulking alongside Stephanie, who looked thoughtful, but downcast. The hero sighed. He hadn't wanted them to go to go and confront Robbie, knowing it would only end badly. It had been a bad idea, and their mood upon returning only proved that.

Now wasn't the time for an 'I told you so' though - he couldn't've stopped them anyway, even though Sportacus saw it as doomed from the start it was something that the kids had to do and would've done whether he'd tried to stop it or not.

"I'm sorry kids," Sportacus said sadly as they came up to the rest of the group, settling a hand on each of their shoulders.

"It's alright Sportacus," Stephanie said, giving him a weak smile.

"No it's _not,"_ Trixie growled, "Robbie's being so- so _frustrating."_

"We think he's upset about something, but we don't know what," Stephanie explained, "and he won't tell us."

Trixie nodded, "we think you were right - he does think we're gonna play a trick on him, but there's something else. It's worse than that."

"but," Stephanie said forcefully, looking at Trixie, "we shouldn't push. I think it will only make him more upset. I think we should leave him alone. He doesn’t have to be here for the game."

"Um, yes he _does,"_ Stingy told her, hands on his hips. "He needs to be here to see our team win."

"Stingy-" Pixel tried to placate him.

_"Pixel."_ Stingy glared at the techno-happy boy. "He should be here - he never gets to have fun and he's always trying to get into our games in ridiculous, scheme-y ways. This time we're actually _inviting_ him!"

"Yes, and he said _no,"_ Pixel emphasised.

"I think he's covering it up. I bet if we find out why he's so upset, he'll come," Stingy declared, crossing his arms.

"Stingy," Sportacus began, but was cut off by Trixie.

"He's right," she said, "but it doesn't matter."

_"Excuse me?"_ Stingy asked, gobsmacked. "If I'm _right_ then it most certainly _does_ matt-"

Trixie shook her head. "No it doesn’t. You'll never find out why he's upset. He won't tell you."

"Yes he will. I want to know."

"So do we," Trixie argued, "but it's pointless. He won't tell so, just don’t bother trying - Pinkie's right, we should just leave him be."

"That's very mature of you Trixie," Sportacus praised. "So-"

"Well I don’t _care,"_ Stingy announced. "I'm _going."_ Head held high, the boy strode off out of the court.

Sportacus just put his head in his hands.

 

* * *

 

 

"Don't try and stop me," Stingy warned when Pixel caught up to him.

The other boy held his hands up in surrender. He had to jog to keep up with Stingy's brisk march. "I'm not, Stinge. I think- I think it's nice, what you're trying to do."

Stingy's eyes narrowed. He could sense a 'but' there. "But?"

"But," Pixel relented, "I also think this could go very wrong very fast, so I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen."

"I don’t need _babysitting_ Pixel," Stingy said, lip curling a little in disgust.

"I know - that's not what I'm doing." Pixel stuck his hand in his pockets and the two travelled in silence for a few minutes. When the billboard that stood in front of Robbie's lair came properly interview, he turned to Stingy. "Why do you want him to come so bad?" He asked, an eyebrow raised under his visor. "Don’t get me wrong! I want him to come see us too, but... I don’t know, you seem to want this more than I thought you would."

Stingy shrugged. "Robbie's _mine._ He should be there to watch us win."

Pixel smiled and shook his head. "Figures."

"And…" Stingy continued, hesitantly, "and he really does never get to have any fun. He lives all alone in that big lair of his and he only ever comes out to try and ruin _our_ fun. But-" Stingy played with the edge of his waistcoat. "Sometimes he looks jealous. I notice things, you know? Sometimes he looks like he wants to join in, but he can't, for whatever reason, so he ruins it instead."

"Sort of an _'if I can't have fun with you then none of you can have any fun'_ thing?" Pixel ventured.

"Exactly. I think he's doing that again - that he's jealous and doesn't think we're serious."

"Yeah, I get that," Pixel nodded, "I can see it."

"I feel bad," Stingy said, "he should be part of _my_ fun. I think _he's_ fun."

"Tell him that then," Pixel said, and Stingy knocked on the hatch to the lair.

It barely took seconds for Robbie to clamber up the pipe and open the hatch, and when he appeared he looked very annoyed. "Oh for crying out loud," Robbie whined when he spotted the two of them, _"what?"_

Stingy looked him straight in the eye. "I want you to come to the football match."

"Oh, so it's your invitation now is it?" Robbie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No- yes- it- _it's ours,"_ Stingy said, sticking his nose proudly in the air. Pixel smiled at him.

"A collective effort, then," Robbie mused. He sounded upset though, and Stingy didn’t understand why.

"Why is this upsetting to you?" the child demanded, "what did we do?"

"You didn't _do_ anything," Robbie sighed harshly. He pinched his nose and grumbled to himself. "Look. I'm not coming to your game. Stop pestering me about if you think I'm sad or whatever and leave me alone."

"No," Stingy said, "I-" he was cut off by Pixel's hand on his shoulder.

"Stinge," he said, "come on, let's just go."

Stingy looked at his friend, then back at Robbie; stood in the chute with his arms crossed and a sour expression on his face.

"Fine." The boy turned on his heel and walked away, Pixel hurrying to follow.

 

* * *

 

 

Trixie was the first to notice their return. She'd spent the entire time they were gone going through Ziggy's chocolate stash, and for once Sportacus hadn't had the heart to stop her - although Stephanie had managed to get her to eat half an orange as well.

"They're back."

Sportacus looked up, following the troublemaker's pointing finger to see the boys trudging towards the court. They didn’t look happy.

Indeed, when they got closer and Sportacus could catch their eye, Pixel shook his head. He saw the girls shoulders slump beside him and his own did the same.

"Robbie's really not coming then?" Ziggy asked Sportacus, looking up at the hero with big blue eyes.

"No," Sportacus said gently, "I don't think so."

Ziggy chewed on his lower lip and reached for a lollypop. "He must be really upset."

"Yes," Sportacus nodded, "but I don't think there's anything else we can do. We've tried."

Ziggy's answering hum was drowned out by the arrival of Pixel and Stingy - or by Trixie yelling "what happened?" at them as they approached.

"He doesn't want to come," Pixel shrugged, Stingy standing sullenly beside him.

"It's _ridiculous,"_ Stingy scoffed.

"Look, guys," Sportacus sighed, "I get that you want Robbie here - I do too, but _he_ doesn’t."

"We know that!" Trixie rolled her eyes, "it's not about the football anymore, I want to know what's wrong with him.

"He just won't tell us," Stingy huffed, "I _know_ there's something wrong and he won't say what! Or why! We could fix it if we knew!"

Stephanie shook her head. "Maybe it's not something we can fix," she ventured.

"I bet we _could_ if he'd just _tell us,"_ Trixie said, frustration clear in his voice, "but he refuses!"

"I know," Sportacus said, raising his hands, "and that’s difficult, but if Robbie _really_ doesn’t want to talk about it - and I think he really _really_ doesn’t want to talk about it - then we need to leave him alone and let the matter go, _okay?"_

The kids looked at each other, and Sportacus could tell that none of them wanted to let the matter go. They all stared at each other, no one willing to back down until Trixie finally broke.

_"Fine,"_ she grit out. "We'll let it go."

_"Thank you,"_ Sportacus breathed. "Now can we-"

"Wait," Stephanie interrupted, "where did Ziggy go?"

 

* * *

 

 

By the time the fourth knock on his hatch came along, Robbie was ready to tear his hair out. Hadn't they run out of brats to send by now!? Honestly, today felt like it would never end.

Biting back a frustrated yell, Robbie slid out of his chair and stomped over to his balcony to pull down the periscope. He refused to be yelled at again. This time he was just going to look through his periscope, see who it was, and then tell them to go away. Simple. He wouldn’t have to climb up that stupid pipe - _again_ \- and he wouldn’t get be drawn into an argumentative conversation with the brats.

He yanked his periscope down and peered through cautiously, swivelling it around to try and see who was bothering him

There - stood in front of the chute entrance was the littlest brat - Zigger or something - rocking back and forth on his heels, happily waiting for an answer to his knock. He appeared to be holding a small bag in one hand and a handful of… something else in the other.

"What do you want?"

The sudden voice made the kid jump, but the second he spotted the periscope he smiled and shoved his hand into its vision.

Robbie startled, no longer being able to see anything other than a blurry multitude of bright colours. "What-" Robbie spluttered, narrowing his eyes in suspicion, "what _is_ this?"

"It's candy!" The boy exclaimed, beaming. He pulled his hand back a little and yes, Robbie could see that the hand was indeed full of candy. He wondered if the bag was also full of sweets, or if it was something else.

"I don't know what your favourite kind is," the kid said, "so I bought a bit of everything - there's taffy, bubblegum, hard candies and chocolate, and I brought lollypops too, and-"

_"Why_ have you brought me candy?" Robbie asked, "Are you trying to bribe me? I've already told all the other brats, I don’t want to play your stupid game."

"I don’t know what a bribe is," the kid said. "I know you don’t want to play though. You don’t _have_ to play if you don’t want to Robbie."

Robbie stuck out his tongue, though he knew the kid couldn’t see. What on earth was the brat playing at? Robbie decided he didn’t really care - after all the annoyance of the day, he just wanted his candy. He pressed a button on his piano and on the surface, the hatch opened.

"Drop the candy in the chute and go away."

"Okay!"

The kid climbed up the ladder on its side with some difficulty, and leaned forwards to drop the candy in. Instead of doing that though, he fell in.

Robbie groaned and thumped his head against the handle of his periscope as the tell-tale thumping of someone sliding down his chute echoed throughout the lair. This time, it was accompanied by an excited 'whoop!'.

The little blond kid shot out of the pipe's end and landed upside down in his orange chair, pushing the whole thing back a foot with his momentum.

"Wow!" the kid gasped, "that was awesome!"

"That isn't what I told you to do," Robbie ground out. "I said drop the candy in the chute, not _yourself."_

"I know," the kid shrugged, still grinning breathlessly, "I fell in!"

Robbie groaned again, then stalked back over to his chair so he could kick the kid out of it. "Well now I want you to fall _out_ again! Go back up there and go play your stupid game - and leave my candy!"

"But I can't climb!" the kid complained, "I'm not strong enough to do that yet - I can't even do the monkey-bars in the playground."

_Ugh_ . The one time his encouragement of laziness came back to get him. Maybe he should leave off on the schemes a little, just to make sure all the kids were strong and - ew - _healthy_ enough that they could climb back out of his lair if they ever found themselves in it.

"Taffy?"

Oh, what the heck. He was tired and he hadn't had anywhere _near_ the amount of sugar he should have by this time yet. He took the wrapped taffy stick the kid held out to him and took a bite. "Now get out of my seat."

The kid obediently got down onto the floor, chewing on his own taffy stick, and Robbie sunk back down into the glorious fluffy pillows of his now-free seat.

"That’s better- what! What are you- ew, no! I don’t want your little sticky taffy covered hands on me! Get off!"

But Ziggy ignored him and clambered up onto Robbie's lap anyway. That's what he did when an adult was sad, because then he could give them hugs if they needed it. It always worked for his mum and grandma, and most of the time it worked for his Aunt Bessie too. He figured Robbie needed it, because he looked tired and sad.

Plus, he didn’t want to sit on the floor.

Robbie sighed and gave in, wrapping a reluctant arm around the kids waist to keep him from falling off - the last thing he needed was Sportaflop barrelling down here because the kid fell off Robbie's knee and set of that blasted crystal of his.

Ziggy smiled and happily wiggled back into the embrace.

"Oh shut up."

They ate their taffy in silence, and the second Robbie was done with his the kid shoved a large, crunch-filled chocolate bar into his face. That was the only reason he didn’t just kick the kid off right there and take him back up-top.

"Why won't you come play with us?"

_"Oh,"_ Robbie sighed, looking up at the ceiling, "not this again." He shouldn't've taken that stupid chocolate bar, he should've just taken the kid back up and be done with all of this. "Because I don’t _want_ to," he sighed.

"Why not?" the kid asked. "It's fun!"

"It's not _fun,"_ Robbie scoffed. Honestly, why couldn’t they just _drop_ the subject? "I don’t want to run around for hours getting all sweaty and hot and gross doing something I _suck_ at - especially not a sport - who wants to do that?"

"That's okay Robbie," the kid smiled up at him, "you don't _have_ to be good at it! _I'm_ not very good at _all_ ; all the others are better than me, but I don’t mind because they help me and I have lots of fun anyway, even when we lose, and _that’s_ what Sportacus says is important."

"Really," Robbie asked, raising an eyebrow, "Mr _'I'm stupidly ridiculously good and perfect at absolutely everything ever'_ said you don't have to be good at it?"

The kid frowned. "Yeah?"

"Doesn’t he spend every day teaching you to be better at all those stupid sports and things?"

Ziggy laughed, "of course! We want to win after all. But it doesn’t matter if we don't; Sportacus says that you don’t _have_ to be good at something, as long as you've had fun playing - _that’s_ what matters."

Robbie frowned. That couldn’t be right. Well, even if it was, it didn't matter. It changed nothing. "I don’t care," Robbie said, "I'm still not playing. I don’t care what Sportacus says to you lot, he'll just make fun of me once he sees how bad I am."

"What?" Ziggy asked, confused. "No he won't? Sportacus wouldn't make fun of someone because they can't do something."

Robbie let out a bitter laugh. "Please, that’s the whole reason he _invited_ me! He just wants to laugh at me."

The child gasped so hard that for a moment Robbie thought he was choking and panicked.

_"What!?"_ the boy shrieked, "that’s _not_ true! Sportacus would _never_ do that, not ever!"

"Of course it is? Why _else_ would he invite me? I'm _horrible_ at sports, why would he want someone to come play that's awful? He just want to watch me come and make of a fool of myself - he just wants to prove his point that being lazy is bad and that- that I should be _healthy."_ The villain shuddered.

"No, no no no!" Ziggy protested, "that’s not right at all! Robbie, Sportacus invited you because he wants you to have fun, because he wants to spend time with you! He doesn’t care if you can't play football, he just wants you to come have fun with us!"

Robbie shook his head. "I don't believe you - why would he- no, that’s not right."

"It's true!" Ziggy insisted, "he was so upset when you said you didn’t want to come before. I think he cried."

"He- he _cried!?"_ Robbie gasped. No - there was no way-

Ziggy nodded, "I _think_ he did, his eyes were all red when he walked back from seeing you - I saw them - that’s what people look like after they cry, I know it."

"I- I made Sportacus cry…"

"He was very upset when you said you wouldn’t play with us, Robbie," the kid patted Robbie's thigh comfortingly. "He was sad that you thought he'd play a trick on you."

Robbie looked at the kid on his lap. "That’s what he thought I thought?"

"Yup."

"Well… he wasn’t wrong."

"I know. But _you_ are, Robbie. Sportacus would _never_ play a mean trick like that on you. He _really_ likes you Robbie, he wants to spend time with you and do fun things with you - _that’s_ why he invited you to play. That’s why _we_ want you to play. _We_ want to spend time with you too - we think you're fun."

"Y- you do?"

Ziggy nodded vigorously. "Uh-huh!"

The villain couldn’t believe it. these were the kids he tricked and schemed against on a weekly basis at _least,_ and they thought he was _fun?_ They wanted to have fun with him, even though he devoted most of his time to ruining theirs?

Still…

Robbie shuffled in the seat, trying to avoid the child's happy eyes. "I- I'm sorry, Zig, but I really can't play with you." Even though he wasn’t looking directly at the kid, he could practically _sense_ his face falling. "I know that you said it wasn’t about being good but I'm really _very_ bad at football and… I- I'd feel stupid. You said it was about having fun, yes?"

Ziggy nodded.

"Well I wouldn’t have fun if I felt stupid."

He looked down to see the kid blinking. "Oh," he said, relatively nonplussed, _"oh!"_ The child laughed suddenly and Robbie was _very_ confused.

"What?" the villain asked.

"Oh Robbie, that’s okay! You don’t have to play if you don’t want to - we don't mind! We just want to see you and spend time with you. As long as you're there, that’s what we really wanted."

"Oh."

Ziggy shrugged. "You can just watch if you want, you know; cheer along and eat snacks while _we_ play."

"Oh," Robbie said again, dumbfounded. "I- I think… I think I can do that."

Ziggy bounced on his lap excitedly, "so does that mean you'll come!?"

Robbie sighed, and finally gave the poor kid the answer everybody'd been hounding him for all day.

 

* * *

 

 

_"There!"_ Trixie suddenly screamed from her lookout point on the wall, pointing, and Sportacus had never turned around so fast in his life.

Ziggy was skipping along the path to the court, happy as could be, with a little bag in one hand and- was- was that-

"It's Robbie!" Stephanie gasped, hand flying up to her mouth in shock, and Sportacus's face spilt into a grin.

Everyone was silent as Ziggy pulled a nervous looking Robbie into the court, the villains long fingers clasped in Ziggy's tiny hand. The boy gently lead him over to where Sportacus and the others were standing and looked up at the hero.

"Robbie want's to sit and watch," he told him, "is that okay?"

Sportacus couldn't believe it, he'd been _so_ sure that Robbie wouldn’t come. "Y- _yes!"_ he blurted, "yes of _course_ you can Robbie!"

The kids all burst into raucous cheers, jumping up and down and whooping, and Robbie put his hands over his ears.

"Alright, _alright!"_ the villain shouted, "I said I'd watch! You don’t have to yell at me!"

The cheering died down and Stephanie laughed. _"Robbie,"_ she said, "we weren’t yelling at you - were cheering! We're _happy._ "

Robbie blinked. "Oh."

_"See!"_ Ziggy said, tugging excitedly on Robbie's hand, "I _told_ you it'd be fine!"

Robbie turned red. "Yes, you did." He released the kids hand and gave him an awkward pat on the head before turning to Sportacus. "Thanks," he said, wringing his fingers together, "you know, for… for letting me watch."

Sportacus smiled at him. "It's fine-"

"Hey Robbie!" Trixie called, "You feeling better now?"

"Yeah Robbie, what was wrong, Pixel asked, concerned.

Robbie jumped. "It- it doesn’t matter," he stammered, "it's sorted now."

It looked like Stingy and Trixie were about to push for more but Sportacus spoke up before they could.

"That’s okay Robbie," the hero said gently, "you don’t have to tell us if you don't want to - isn't that _right,_ kids?" He cast firm looks towards Trixie and Stingy.

"Uh, yeah Sportacus, that's right..." Trixie said sheepishly. Pixel just put a hand over Stingy's opening mouth and dragged him off towards the goal posts.

Sportacus gestured over to the bench next to the snack table. "I think this one has the best view - it's closest to the food anyway," he gave a half shrug and a little chuckle and Robbie felt the tips of his ears burn.

As he sat, Sportacus turned to go and join the kids and Robbie panicked, his arm shooting out to close around Sportacus's wrist. Startled, the hero turned back around and Robbie let go immediately. "Sorry," he apologised, "s- sorry."

"It's fine," the hero smiled at him, "did you want me?"

"I-" Robbie fell quiet, fiddling with his own fingers in his lap. "I- I'm sorry for being so… mean before," he told the other. "I- I misunderstood your… intentions."

Sportacus smiled softly and knelt down on one knee in front of him. "It's okay Robbie," he said gently, taking Robbie's fidgeting hands in his own. "I'm _really_ happy you decided to join us."

Robbie spluttered, heat rising rapidly to his face as Sportacus stood up again He smiled at the villain once more before again turning to go to the kids, and again, Robbie stopped him.

"Wait, wait," Robbie said, frowning at the bandana tied to Sportacus's arm, "are you on the _blue_ team?"

Confused, Sportacus looked to where Robbie was frowning and "Yes?"

"Of _course_ he's on the blue team," Trixie said as she wandered over to grab an apple for Stephanie, rolling her eyes, "blue's kind of his _thing."_

_"Exactly,"_ Robbie said, scoffing, "you could stand to switch things up a bit, you know."

Caught off guard, Sportacus let out the most ridiculous snort of a laugh and Robbie grinned, settling back to watch as Sportacus jogged over to join the waiting kids.

**Author's Note:**

> (i'll be honest, when i started writing this i hadn't been intending to make sportacus cry. if it makes you feel any better though, writing it made _me _cry.)__


End file.
